Doha climate talks: ministers must improve negative trend

We are well into the second and final week of the UN climate talks in Doha, but the outcome is still far from certain. Almost all major negotiation topics remain and we see little progress on overarching objectives. Ministers arrived this week to pick up the mantle. They must improve the negative trend.

In Durban, the global community, with the exception of the self-ostracised government of President Obama, agreed the Kyoto Protocol would continue. In part because the United States is not intervening, many countries generally expect success on this objective for Doha. Kyoto commitments end this year, so Kyoto Parties must agree on a new commitment period to start on January 1, 2013.

However, countries have yet to even sort out the length of the second period (five or eight years) and many have offered no pollution targets. Most of the 2020 targets so far are pitiful, such as the business-as-usual (BAU) 20% from the EU and the 0.5% from Australia.

Loopholes plague the integrity of Kyoto, but countries like Poland grapple to maintain the carbon market's large surplus of polluter 'rights' or AAUs (assigned amount units – dubbed hot air). This inspires despondence for the next conference, likely to be in Poland, particularly when the EU seems almost content with the Polish position.

The second over-arching objective was to finalise the negotiations that started in 2007 in Bali. Ideally, this was to end in a legally-binding agreement in Copenhagen, but the US killed that idea.

The Obama government's intransigence has postponed culmination every year since. All negotiation issues must either be agreed, or intentionally placed into a new negotiation track as was decided in Durban (the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform – or ADP).

And we should see a work plan leading to a legal agreement in 2015.

Despite having had three additional years to negotiate, almost every important issue is stuck between the will of countries demanding strong action and countries like the US that are visibly irritated at claims they offer almost nothing.

The US stands out as a culprit against progress on most issues and the self-righteous claims by US Special Envoy, Todd Stern, and Deputy Special Envoy, Jonathan Pershing, rattle hopes. On climate finance, the US continues to block debate on how to fill the Green Climate Fund, which is meant to support developing country efforts. We have seen an aversion to even agreeing to discuss how to increase ambition on emissions targets.

On issues where the US needs to invest little political capital at home, the US has blocked debate, for example, on how to establish common rules to account for pollution reductions. Common accounting rules are vital to understanding if collective efforts are enough. The US also remains a top blocker on negotiations to provide additional short-term financing for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). REDD stands to address 20% of global emissions.

It is not in the national interest of any country to allow catastrophic climate disruption. The hard bargaining, the specious evaluations of domestic progress, and the foot-dragging must stop.

We need to see a strong second phase of the Kyoto Protocol, and we need to see a workable plan that ensures a legally-binding agreement in 2015. The ministers in Doha have only a few days left to show the world that there is still hope for a habitable planet.

Humanities primary concern should be the control , removal and stabilizing of green house gasses to accept...

Procrastination and Priorities

Humanities primary concern should be the control , removal and stabilizing of green house gasses to acceptable levels . Continuing on the current path of greenhouse gas emissions will in the longer term bring widespread undesired environmental change . All efforts at stabilization will be in vain unless we can achieve a global paradigm shift towards a sustainable existence. Time unfortunately is of the essence to prevent run away climate change.

No single cure is available for the challenges that face humanity and the problems should be approached simultaneously from various angles.

Methods of curbing greenhouse gas emissions and removing greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere must be given priority and implemented globally with a sense of urgency. All humanity must be educated ,mobilized and act with understanding ,responsibility and co operation towards a desired future.

What can individual U. S. residents do to highlight the urgency of action, and pressure the government? E-mail blitzes--to whom? Who at the White Ho...

What can individual U. S. residents do to highlight the urgency of action, and pressure the government? E-mail blitzes--to whom? Who at the White House listens, and how to connect? Obama's reported to be on "a listening tour"--how can we be heard??
From here I will continue searching the Web to see which organizations have a direct action going on right now--with only two days of Doha left.
I can hear the death knell of the natural systems we rely on, ringing from the future, back in time to today. I don't want to wear a black armband the rest of my life.

I will continue searching the Web to see which organizations have a direct action going on right now--with only two days of Doha left.
I can he...

I will continue searching the Web to see which organizations have a direct action going on right now--with only two days of Doha left.
I can hear the death knell of the natural systems we rely on, ringing from the future, back in time to today. I don't want to wear a black armband the rest of my life.